Melanie Rowden
by Dandruff Chick x
Summary: A muggle girl called Melanie Rowden goes to Hogwarts where her god father Dumbledore Uncle Al teaches. Melanie is singled out as a threat by Voldemort, she flees. Will she ever return? What is she doing in the wizarding world? Is she one herself?


In one of the compartments of the Hogwarts Express sat a girl, roughly sixteen years of age with messy brown hair, slightly uneven teeth and soft brown eyes. She wore a black hoody and jeans not wanting to be too conspicuous, along with her favourite pair of blue sneakers, she was a perfectly ordinary girl, a bit too ordinary in fact...

The Hogwarts Express lead to Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardry, so as you can understand, only witches and wizards could go and this young girl, who goes by the name of Melanie Rowden, possessed no magical ability at all. Surrounding her was spells and owls and books containing lotions and potions but Melanie had never shown any sign of magic and wasn't thought of as a late bloomer either, she was a Muggle.

As the train drew up to the castle Melanie began to feel very nervous, the rest of the school were now piling out of the train doors and they were all in their Hogwarts robes but Melanie managed to obtain her trunk and new tawny owl, Ewa, without attracting too much attention. She followed the large man, with his flyaway beard towards the castle along with the other sixth years.

They entered the large gate, now Melanie was getting some strange looks, she didn't think anyone knew she was a Muggle though, just that she had forgotten her uniform or something like that. In the crowd she noticed two worried faces constantly looking behind them, one, a girl with bushy brown hair the other a boy with flaming red hair and freckles. Their names were Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, well known best friends of Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, The Chosen One and so many other names. Melanie thought she would just call him Harry during her time at Hogwarts to safe the hassle.

As they came up to the door they were all poked and jabbed by the secrecy sensors much to everybody's annoyance, there was a particularly loud scream from a small, round faced boy named Neville Longbottom. Once through the doors and past the secrecy sensors and their grumpy owner (Filch, the caretaker) Melanie was separated from the rest of the year group as they entered the hall and made stand with the first years. She wasn't the shortest either so she had to bent down quite a bit to avoid attention but even with her knees bent as low as they would go (much to Melanie's displeasure) people still goggled at her muttering things like "What is a sixth year doing with the little first years?" and "Why is she in Muggle clothes?" and the ruder students with "Who the hell is she?" Melanie tried very hard to ignore all this and focus on the strange ceiling with its floating candles and how much it looked like the night sky but was very grateful when a stern woman, who had earlier introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, lined them up and brought them to the front where a particularly old and weathered hat was perched on a small stool.

Professor McGonagall explained that all they had to put the hat on their heads and it would sort them into their houses out of "Gryffindor", "Hufflepuff", "Ravenclaw" and "Slytherin". Which the hat kindly explained in a very interesting song; the gist and nub is that Gryffindor is for the brave, Ravenclaw the brainy, Slytherin the sly and shrewd (not very nice) and Hufflepuff took everyone else. Melanie watched as pupil after pupil went up and sat on the stool and put the hat on their head, fortunately Melanie was quite near the end so she wasn't going to be the first person but on the other hand, big build up! After "Corey Raven – Slytherin!" it was Melanie's turn. The whispers started again as she walked towards the hat and placed it on her head. Melanie heard the scrape of a chair against wood behind her but all she could hear was the voice inside her head.

"Hmmm... not a bad mind....courage...ah, yes plenty of that...kind heart...Hufflepuff...no, no...better be GRYFFINDOR!!!"

A small clap came from one of the for tables, presuming this was Gryffindor, Melanie went and sat down, walking over there Melanie was attracting a lot of strange looks, even disgusted looks from the far table "Slytherin" . The hat had been right about them; she knew why everyone was staring at her, as she had been listening to the hat Uncle Al (Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore) had been explaining that Melanie was a Muggle but would be attending Hogwarts for the year and possibly the next ,studying magic and wizards and taking part in things like Potions and Flying but unable to participate in things like Charms and Transfiguration where she would merely study from a book, he explained how her parents had died and how her heritage had fallen to him, her godfather, she was to be treated as any other student here, no differently just because of her blood. It was obviously the blood part which had got the Slytherins.

After Uncle Al's words (Jiggle, Squeak, Boris) the plates magically filled themselves with loads of delicious foods and everybody dug in, there was a buzz of conversation in the hall and people were chattering and laughing everywhere, Melanie relaxed, nobody was worrying about her anymore. She had found a niche in the sixth years and had sat there not wanting to sit with the first years and talk about how long Uncle Al's beard was. She was sat in between a Indian girl with long black hair who, after a little eavesdropping, Melanie discovered was called Parvati Patil, on her other side was the bushy haired girl from earlier she was fretting again until the doors opened and Harry Potter walked in, though he had blood all over his face. Melanie listened in on their conversation until Ron brought her up.

"Did you hear about that Muggle girl?" he whispered it but was anywhere that Melanie was so close by.

"No, who is it?" Harry asked.

"Well she's this Muggle and her parents died and –"

"Her name is Melanie, Ronald and she must be feeling terrible about her parents dying!" she turned to Harry "She's Dumbledore's God-daughter and she'll be staying at the castle for the next year or so."

"But she's not a witch," Harry said, confused.

"So?"

"Well, how is she supposed to do the lessons?"

"They don't all require a wand you know, but for those that do she will just study from books I presume,"

"You do realise she's right there?" said Ron nodding towards where Melanie was sitting who realised the turn in the conversation and reached out for a chicken leg acting oblivious to everything they had been saying. Hermione gasped and introduced herself, which Melanie thought was very nice until she realised it was probably just for manners, apparently Hermione came from a Muggle family too. All the same she was the first person who had even tried to talk to her and Melanie couldn't argue with that. She thought she made quite a good impression, Hermione was obviously interested in books and so was Melanie but not the same type, her liking fact and Melanie preferring Fiction. Hermione was just explaining the ins and outs of Potions when the mains disappeared in exchange for the desserts, Melanie loaded her plate with ice cream and continued talking to Hermione who asked her questions about where she came from, her parents and Uncle Al mostly. Harry and Ron soon joined in the conversation after they had worn all the fun out of talking about Quidditch and Malfoy, a Slytherin boy who was Harry's rival. Melanie found them just as interesting as they seemed to find her.

Once everybody had eaten and drank as much as they could, Uncle Al rose from his chair.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, or welcome back as the case is for most of you, I have a few announcements to make, starting perhaps with the most urgent. As you all know there is dark magic at work, evil afoot, behind all this is Lord Voldemort, every protection possible has been set up around the castle but there are still precautions you must take; you are not allowed out in the grounds unless accompanied by a member of staff, the Forbidden Forest is, as always, Forbidden and I must ask you all to make yourself top priority and keep yourselves safe. Now time for bed, chop chop." He accented each "chop" with a clap of his hand.

Melanie arrived in the common room, not having a clue where she was supposed to be sleeping or where her trunk or Ewa was or anything but luckily Hermione was a prefect and had just been told Melanie's sleeping arrangements. She was to be sharing with Hermione and several other girls she had not yet met, happy to be with someone she knew but nearly too tired to care, Melanie dragged herself up the stairs and into her pyjamas, after pulling back her four-poster she fell asleep instantly.


End file.
